Contact

After the failed attempt at Syrian regime change, the next target is Hezbollah

After more than seven years of war with the goal of changing the Syrian regime, the target has now become Hezbollah. But the question remains: after the failure of the 2006 war, what can the enemies of this organisation do to achieve their goal?

Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said in his most recent speech that “Hezbollah is stronger than the Israeli army”. Israel responded by showing a drill of the Golani brigade and the 7thArmoured Brigade, in the presence of Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, simulating war against Hezbollah. This drill took place after routine ground forces exercises of the 36thDivision to “improve coordination and readiness in case of war”.

In a message indicating that it will not distinguish civilians from militants, Israel has constructed a new training base in the occupied Golan Heights, the Snir facility, to simulate Lebanese villages. These mock Hezbollah villages are meant to be of the type Israeli soldiers might face in combat situations if an invasion of Lebanon is ordered.

Likewise, Hezbollah has constructed mock Israeli villages on the Lebanese-Syrian borders for combat training to prepare for war. Sayyed Nasrallah has promised to move the battle beyond the Lebanese borders and has asked his men to prepare to fight on “enemy ground” if war is imposed on Hezbollah.

Israel’s ongoing repetitive threats against Lebanon and Hezbollah are nothing new to Sayyed Nasrallah, who doesn’t give undue weight to these continuous menaces. In fact, he keeps himself informed about all news related to Israel, the Middle East and the world events of interest to him. A special team made of tens of translators and media expert collect daily all the news from open sources and keep the Hezbollah leader informed, as do his intelligence services, represented in various countries, and his own private contacts with allies he regularly meets.

He is not unfamiliar with reservist Major General Yitzhak Brik, the Israeli Army commissioner for the rights of soldiers, who talks of a serious crisis in an army that has become a “mediocre organisation suffering from overburdening and exhaustion”.

Brik said top officials sell a false image (of the Army) that does not correspond to reality. “We have become a group of cowards. There is a serious crisis of motivation among young officers”.

The former head of the Israeli special service Nativ, Yaakov Kedmi, said that “the motivation to serve in the military has been reduced. Israeli society is no longer willing to grant privileges to the army”.

Sayyed Nasrallah did not mean that his organisation has an air force (it has none, of course) stronger than that of Israel. Nor does Hezbollah receive financial support from Iran equivalent to that provided by the US to Israel, including “US forces ready to die for Israel”. Sayyed Nasrallah counts on a group of experienced young men, with strong ideology and a high level of training, not looking for death but also not afraid of it. Hezbollah’s goal is to stand against Israel and its allies who aim to eradicate the group: it is a matter of survival.

Hezbollah has proven its combat capability against the ISIS (Daesh) organisation in Lebanon and Syria, as well as against al-Qaeda and other jihadist Takfiri groups. The Lebanese group lost only one battle over the last six years of war, a battle on the hill of el-Eiss in April 2016. This defeat resulted from a lack of coordination between allied forces. That day the military plan was for allied forces to occupy the el-Eiss hill surrounding the city of el-Eiss; the city itself was to be liberated by Hezbollah. The allies withdrew from the hill without informing the forces in the city. This lack of communication caused the death of 28 Hezbollah members whose bodies are still unrecovered and buried on the battlefield.

But this military setback did not affect the performance of the party, which was able to conduct both guerrilla battles on its own against different groups, and other battles alongside classical armies (Syrian and Russian). Together with its allies and the Syrian Army, Hezbollah managed to liberate territories at least 14 times bigger than Lebanon (the size of Syria is around 180,000 sqkm, while Lebanon is 10,453 sqkm).

Hezbollah has proven its fidelity to Syria, whose President Bashar al-Assad rejected a recent offer from Saudi Arabia to rebuild everything the seven years of war has destroyed and to remain as president – with US backing – on the condition that he give up on Palestine and Hezbollah. Assad rejected the “generous” but poisoned offer – as he has described it in private.

The years of war taught Assad to distinguish between allies and countries such as Saudi Arabia who invested much to remove him from power at the cost of destroying the country: “An ideological ally (Hezbollah) is better than the richest of all countries because this real ally did not and would never abandon him, and has no ambitions in Syria but to see stability in the Levant and to prevent Takfiri Jihadists – supported by Arab and western countries – from creating a failed state”, Assad repeats often to his visitors.

Indeed, Hezbollah has given orders to evacuate its military units from all Syrian cities and villages, without exception: no Hezbollah military forces are to remain in urban areas. They (military) will be present only on the borders between the two countries.

Hezbollah is now on focusing its military attention on the border with Israel, preparing for a war that may happen tomorrow, or that may never happen.

A writer affiliated with a western think tank recently asked the West to “wake up“, claiming that Hezbollah is expanding into Europe and trading drugs to secure resources because Western pressure on Tehran threatens its sources of funding. Many other writers call for the elimination of Hezbollah as a threat to Lebanon. These articles reflect western ignorance about Hezbollah’s thinking, its work, power, funding and goals.

Hezbollah is stronger than the Lebanese army and all the Lebanese security forces combined. Nevertheless, it would never consider capturing, dominating or otherwise controlling Lebanon for many reasons unrelated to its superior combat capability.

The party is aware that Lebanon is a multi-ethnic country (with 18 sects and religions) and that an “Islamic republic” is unattainable because its conditions are currently unfavourable. Hezbollah does not want to and indeed cannot meet the demands of a state and the well-being of its entire population because it does not have the resources of a state. The group is not in a position to manage a country with little resources, a country receiving and dependent on foreign (Arab and western) aid and wealth, a country that cannot permit itself to be isolated from the world as it would be if ruled by Hezbollah.

The “Tea Scandal” in the second Israeli war in 2006: https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Lebanese-general-arrested-for-drinking-tea-with-IDF

Moreover, Hezbollah has agreed on an interior minister (Sunni), a political foe and friend of its greatest political enemy (Saudi Arabia), because it does not want to be responsible for the internal security of the country. Nor does the organization want to be accused of sectarianism, corruption or bribery, or of arresting Sunni jihadists on a sectarian basis.

Hezbollah believes it can continue to exist indefinitely only if the local population, and especially the Shiites in Lebanon, embrace the group and offer a safe environment for its operation. This is the key: Hezbollah’s militants, families and supporters make up around 25% (Shia are estimated above 30% of the total sects and religion in Lebanon) of the Lebanese population.

Since 1945 the Lebanese state neglected the Shiite community, who lived for decades in worse conditions than residents of Palestinian refugee camps spread out all over Lebanon. When the opportunity arose for them to bear arms and build an identity, the community did not hesitate to take it.

Israel strengthened its raison d’être with its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Hezbollah arose first to fight Israel, and then to liberate Lebanese territory in a second phase. It then moved on to supporting the “axis of resistance” in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Today, the Shiites of Lebanon are no longer in need of the Taqiya (concealing or disguising one’s beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions, and/or strategies at a time of imminent danger) and shall not give up their arms in the face of any danger to their existence, domestic or international. No matter how seriously Israel and the US may threaten Shiite areas in Lebanon, they will not surrender the power, dignity and status they have achieved in Lebanon.

Hezbollah today employs tens of thousands of Shiites – in the military and social activities – who positively contribute to the shaky Lebanese economy. These tens of thousands working in the ranks of “Hezbollah” did not come to Lebanon from another planet, country, or continent. They are the people of the Lebanon, the people of the southern suburbs, Beirut, Jubail, Saida, Tyre, Bekaa, Baalbek, Hermel, and all parts of Lebanon. Thus, those who demand the abolition of Hezbollah are in effect calling for the destruction of an intrinsic and significant part of the population of Lebanon.

The US has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to counter Hezbollah in Lebanon and distort its image to no avail. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri asked in a letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (intercepted by US forces in Iraq on the 9thof July 2005), when he was targeting Shi’ites instead of the occupier during the first years of the US occupation of Iraq: has any Islamic State in history ever been successful in eliminating the Shiites?

Proofreading by: Maurice Brasher

If you read this reporting and you like it, please don’t feel embarrassed to contribute and help fund it for as little as 1 Euro. Your contribution, however small, will help ensure its continuity. Thank you.

AFTER THE FAILED ATTEMPT AT SYRIAN REGIME CHANGE, THE NEXT TARGET IS HEZBOLLAH…..

Again? Marx stated (18th Brumaire) that “history repeats itself, first time as tragedy, second time as farce.” This second time, the real goal of the US/Israel/Saudi-GCC satraps/et al, is to destroy the Shia base that supports Hezbollah. They know they can bleed Hezbollah, but cannot destroy it as a fighting force. Hezbollah has been for decades readying their strategic depth to face Israel in an all-out war, and are prepared for anything Israel can throw at them. Hezbollah has developed the art of war of the resistance to its ultimate expression, their forces not just a fish in the water of the civilian population, but water itself. There is no distinction between a Hezbollah fighting unit and the civilians, who are their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grand and great-grandparents, children, wives, they are all part of an extended clan, sometimes inhabiting an entire village.

The US/Israel/Saudi-GCC satraps, etc., are ready to apply the lessons learned in Yemen to Lebanon, carpet bombing civilians to dust in hope that will erode the civilian population support for Hezbollah. If they fail at that objective, at least Hezbollah and their supporters will not have any infrastructure left to either continue their war efforts, or to develop a normal life, their enemies think. Hezbollah is well prepared for these contingencies, and after the lessons learned in the 2006 Summer War, it has gone further underground, digging bomb shelters, bunkers, hospitals and refugee centers, wherefrom people can continue supporting the war against Israel. As for Israel’s “air superiority,” Hezbollah has been minimizing that danger for years, and Israel might be surprised too late to avoid a humiliation to its air force, which might not be able to use drones, helicopters or jets flying at medium height over Lebanon. Nobody really knows the power of Hezbollah missiles, land, air or sea, or any other Hezbollah weapon for that matter. During the last war in 2006, they shocked the Israelis (and the world) by sinking a warship navigating Lebanese waters, a first for Israel, and Hezbollah.

When Shaykh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stated “Hezbollah is stronger than the Israeli army,” he was not talking quantities or quality of training/weapons, though they matter in any war. He was talking about morale, esprit de corps. Napoleon said, “Morale is to materiel as three is to one,” and that principle stands today, as demonstrated by many war of liberations worldwide, Viet Nam the highest example. The question posted from AQ’s al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi, lends historical confirmation within the Shia context, to the extent of Hezbollah’s will to resist any kind of oppression. For Shiites, “Every day is Ashura, every land is Karbala”.

When you find yourself occupied and marginalized. You then start attacking your countrymen, it means they are not really from that country or they are collaborators.. History has shown this to be true. Lebanon itself is a great example. From watching the events, well it was clear that the US was funding sunni collaborators into blowing up Shiites. With a little help of the British who were caught placing bombs in markets dressed as arabs.

A reporter has to make sense in mainstream narrative but a commentator does not. So I can clearly say Al Queda and ISIS are part of the US military just like blackwater or olive or what ever..The US military itself is a mercenary force and has been for centuries. They have even subverted some shia groups in Iraq. I just hope people learn from history. Your countrymen are not the enemy even if they join ISIS etc.. after all you lived together mostly peacefully for thousands of years. Take away the imperialists and colonizers in sheep’s clothing with fat loads of worthless $$$$ bills and peace will return.

And its a great day today to know the vile inhumane vampire called mccain has croaked and sadly there was no pain and it was far too quick.

EJ, soon seven years of US trying to provoke Iran into a casus belli that can be blown up by the MSM and thus start WWIII, and yet I cannot find any concrete evidence that the Axis of Resistance has understood that their antithesis plays according to the Biblical book of Revelation and its Koranic equivalent.

Yes, the Axis as well as Hamas has since summer 2017 FINALLY understood that the US/NATO/GCC/Commonwealth plus PFP are fishing for WWIII, yet not shown coherence in their actions according to their new insight. This tells of that they plus Moscow, Beijing, Caracas, etc. have yet to understand the Foucauldian governmentality/regementality of the Enemy.

EJ, there are a number of internet sites that Hezbollah’s analytics need to add to their sources for gathering information from, such as:

* VigilantCitizen.com specialized in Kabbalist and Talmudist semiotics and human mind programming through Hollywood and music videos, and power analysis of the ancient Illuminati elites.

* IsraeliNewsLive.com and on Youtube, but with the best and exclusive analysis through the Book of Revelation and the Torah on Patreon. Ben De Noon also uses his Hebrew knowledge to get more accurate translations than various Bibles allow.

* Youtube channel Aluna Ash Clairvoyant 9D for an insight in what the (3rd Eye) illuminated elites want the least humanity to think of; the spiritual realm – Cosmos – and instead feed us with geopolitics, etc. This channel gives an insight to the governmentality of the Kabbalist, Talmudist and otherwise NWO/New Age order elites.

The official document called:
The First Global Revolution: A Report by the Club of the Council of Rome (perhaps hinting at the 382A.D. Decree of the Council of Rome) in which humanity is called THE HUMAN MALAISE and their plans on how to deal with it – us.
* https://archive.org/details/TheFirstGlobalRevolution

Published by Elijah J Magnier

Veteran War Zone Correspondent and Senior Political Risk Analyst with over 35 years' experience covering the Middle East and acquiring in-depth experience, robust contacts and political knowledge in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Syria. Specialised in terrorism and counter-terrorism, intelligence, political assessments, strategic planning and thorough insight in political networks in the region.
Covered on the ground the Israeli invasion to Lebanon (1st war 1982), the Iraq-Iran war, the Lebanese civil war, the Gulf war (1991), the war in the former Yugoslavia (1992-1996), the US invasion to Iraq (2003 to date), the second war in Lebanon (2006), the war in Libya and Syria (2011 to date). Lived for many years in Lebanon, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria.
View all posts by Elijah J Magnier